May 27, 2005

Raising the bar for torture

One of the more fascinating aspects of the War on Terror is the extent to which the West is bending over backwards to make sure its enemies aren't offended.

Tom Maguire links to further investigations of whether this or that Koran was treated with appropriate respect at a detention facility for unlawful combatants - and it looks like they weren't.

But even as the mainstream press continues to debate just how fictitious Newsweek's Koran-flushing story was, it ignores the larger issue: why are we even providing them in the first place?

The Koran is the spiritual food of the jihadist; it is every bit as important to nourish their sense of power and righteousness as the food they eat.

Why, then, are they being provided at all?

Let us be clear: These people are unlawful combatants and by their own actions, they have forfeited any protections granted by the Geneva Conventions.

Not that this bothers Amnesty International or the rest of the laughably insincere "human rights community."

For them, it is better than 100 Westerners die in torture chambers and car bombs than that a single jihadi's rights are violated.

The Posse has a simple solution to this strange double standard and the moral issues embodied thereby.

We believe the best and most practical way to deal with the detainees is to execute them, as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Sure, the US would experience a tidal wave of criticism, but then the problem would be solved.

No more torture complaints, no more Koran-flushing stories, no more Abu Ghraib pictures.

US policy should be to determine within a mater of weeks the legality of every detainee. Those found to be unlawful (no uniform, chain of command or Geneva Conventions identification card) shall then be executed.

We are sure some will argue that our enemies will turn around and do the same, but this is a profoundly weak argument. Aren't hostages daily being taken and threatened with death? Why is this?

Because dead captives provide no leverage.

Thus the behavior of our enemies won't change at all, but we will simply the situation considerably.

Could this result in our enemies fighting harder? Perhaps, but it also offers deterrence: Fight the US in an unlawful manner and you will be killed, one way or another.

We make this proposal with perhaps a little tongue in cheek, but it is hard to outdo some of the ludicrous statements already on record.